Sarah Jane Smith takes long road to best career finish at Kingsmill Championship

Sarah Jane Smith's caddie, husband Duane Smith, says she hasn't been finishing well lately, but good things usually happen when she plays bogey-free. Smith finished tied for second in the 2014 Kingsmill Championship.

Sarah Jane Smith's caddie, husband Duane Smith, says she hasn't been finishing well lately, but good things usually happen when she plays bogey-free. Smith finished tied for second in the 2014 Kingsmill Championship.

Norm Wood, nwood@dailypress.com

WILLIAMSBURG — Sarah Jane Smith felt like she was simply in the way from the start five years ago when she made her first trip to play in Williamsburg, but she won't soon forget her latest journey to the Kingsmill Championship.

After all the late-night drives to get to tournaments with the man and fellow Aussie who serves roles as caddie, motivator and husband by her side, Smith might be able to look back one day and say her LPGA Tour springboard came at Kingsmill.

Her 5-under-par score of 66 in the final round Sunday wrapped up a career-best tie for second with Yani Tseng and Lexi Thompson, four shots behind winner Lizette Salas. Starting Sunday in a tie for 14th place, Smith wasn't sure she could finish the day in contention, which is understandable considering she'd never finished better than tied for 64th in three previous ventures at Kingsmill.

"Not that I didn't feel like I could play well. … I'm really happy with 5-under for the day, but I didn't think that would sneak in to (second place)," said Smith, a 29-year-old Queensland, Australia, native who earned a career-best check for $90,642 for her final score of 9-under. "So, I'm happy with that."

Her final round featured no bogeys, five birdies and a nervy up-and-down for par from near the front of the green on the 382-yard par-4 18th hole to lock up the tie for second. She got some help when Tseng blew her chance to finish in second by herself by double-bogeying the 18th hole.

"That got the hands going a little bit at the end, but it was nice to finish that out," Smith said. "It would've sucked to finish with a bogey."

In her three previous Kingsmill tournaments, Smith left Williamsburg without anything resembling a confidence-building experience. She tied for 70th in 2009, missed the cut in 2012 and had the tie for 64th last year. Her aggregate score in 10 Kingsmill rounds before this year was 18-over par.

She remembers arriving at the '09 tournament after driving deep into the night with her husband, Duane, from a Futures Tour stop. Neither Sarah nor Duane could remember which tournament they were at before coming to Kingsmill, but Sarah recalls the clock reading somewhere around 3 a.m. when they got to the Williamsburg hotel.

They elected to sleep in the next day so they could both be fresh before hitting the River Course, but were shocked early the next afternoon when they finally made it to the hotel parking lot and discovered the entire lot had been paved — except for the area around their car.

"We woke up about lunch time and then just hung out in the room for about an hour or so and then we came out and I think there was about four guys sitting on the curb just staring at our car," Duane said. "They'd put some witches' hats around our car and a path for us out, and the rest of it was all freshly paved. Yeah, that was our first experience here. We felt awful."

Duane was destined to spend a golfer's life on the road, whether he did it through his own playing or as Sarah's caddie. They met as 12-year-old junior golfers, but he was too shy to talk to her until he was around 16.

"I would speak to her mum, but I was too scared to talk to her," Duane said.

They started dating about 11 years ago, and were married 5 1/2 years ago. Though Duane pursued a career on the Australasian Tour — even having Sarah caddie for him a few times, including during one oppressively hot Australasian Q-School round in Malaysia that didn't end well for him — he quickly discovered the path to a pro tour would have to go through Sarah.

"We have done some pretty ridiculous things as far as driving to make events and things like that," Sarah Smith said. "It's all worth it. It's all fun."

It hasn't been an easy road for Smith, who spent four seasons on the Futures/Symetra Tour before her LPGA Tour days.

Prior to Sunday, in six seasons on the LPGA Tour, she'd earned more than $17,429 in a tournament only five times, with her biggest check coming September 2012 when she picked up $41,060 for a then career-best tie for sixth in the NavistarLPGA Classic.

Now, after Sunday's finish, she and Duane have something extra to make the long trips a little more palatable.

"This year, I've put myself in better positions and haven't had the best of weekends, but it has been more consistent so far," Smith said. "I've been working on my short game a lot and trying to get that up to scratch. My ball-striking has always been thereabouts. Maybe not the best, but close enough to be competing."